The Wealthy Owl's Growth Portfolio
Companies
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Palantir
NYSE: PLTR
Turning data exhaust into fuel
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $11.46
The thesis for investing in Palantir (or not) is pretty straightforward. You either believe they have the best software for helping companies understand, decide and act on their ever-growing treasure trove of data; or not. And, that the value Palantir is able to extract from the messiness of an organization's data is so important customers will pay headline grabbing sums of money. From what I've been able to decipher after studying this company for the last couple of months is that they simply offer the best widget for turning data exhaust into fuel that helps companies generate differentiated value and outperform their competitors. The alpha Palantir generates for its customers should lead to alpha generation for its investors.
Read Palantir deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
Roblox
NYSE: RBLX
Coming of age
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $42.29
Roblox is one of those rare founder led technology companies with an awe inspiring mission; innovation and transactional platform capabilities; and the most advanced ecosystem in a massive thematic that will change the nature of the economy, business and society. They check a lot of the "potential generational company" boxes. Many dismiss Roblox as a video game for kids. Meanwhile, some on Wall street are anointing Meta as the best investment for a future metaverse that won't be here for another ten years. And, under its nose sits Roblox. The closest to a true metaverse platform.
Read Roblox deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
Digital Ocean
NYSE: DOCN
Bought 175 shares on 2/25/2022 at $59.98
Shopify part deux: Arm the rebels
Bought 25 shares on 3/24/2022 at $52.03
Digital Ocean reminds me of the early days of Shopify as a public company. DOCN serves SMB primarily, offering much more cost effective and easy to use cloud infra platform. DOCN is making moves into platform as a service
HubSpot
NASDAQ: HUBS
Category creator moving into enterprise
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $518.88
HubSpot pioneered a new form of marketing designed to adapt to how today’s modern consumer shops and buys. Inbound marketing has become a very cost-effective alternative to the traditional outbound marketing method. HubSpot is the marketing cloud leader in the Small and Midsize Business (SMB) segment, their upside lies in expanding their use cases and their ability to compete in the enterprise
They have a solid track record of growing the company beyond its first act, with plenty of options to continue to grow the company at an impressive rate. Their leadership is excellent and they are a proven player in a market they pioneered.
Read HubSpot deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
ServiceNow
NYSE: NOW
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $578.99
Transforming into PaaS under nose of Wall Street
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) rode the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) trend to dominance in the IT Services Management (ITSM) software sector. They have since expanded beyond ITSM and are now riding the digital transformation secular trend.
Where I see some potential upside is they are in the process of transforming from a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business into the powerful combination of SaaS plus Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). SalesForce has shown what can happen to a stock when this transition is successful. ServiceNow is still in the early innings of this transformation and I believe they are better positioned for PaaS dominance then SalesForce ever was or is because of the support they receive from IT decision makers. They could also be doing this under the nose of Wall Street who doesn't appear to be talking much about this important growth driver.
Read ServiceNow deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
Global E Online
NASDAQ: GLBE
Removing complexity of cross border ecommerce
Bought 175 shares on 2/25/2022 at $39.22
Bought 25 shares on 3/24/2022 at $32.89
GLBE offers companies a plug and play solution for ecommerce retailers to expand beyond their borders for international growth. GLBE removes all of the complexity of cross border ecommerce - tariffs, currency conversion, localization, shipping and returns, etc; so SMB and large retailers can focus on what they do best. A great picks and shovel play in the growing ecomm thematic. They are also starting to ramp their Shopify partnership so offer some great upside.
Meta Platforms
NASDAQ: FB
Betting on Zuck to adapt
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $210.48
Meta Platforms is more of a value play as investors worry about the threat of TikTok, Apples new privacy rules, and over investment in the metaverse. I don't see TikTok being a major threat in five years and they should be able to work out how to optimize ads business despite Apple new privacy rules. The move to the metaverse is Mark Zuckerberg recognizing it represents an existential threat to the blue app and Instagram business. Better Meta constructively destroys their cash cow then have emerging competitors do it.
ROKU
NASDAQ: ROKU
The Dominant OS in the streaming wars
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $139.61
Roku is often mistaken as a hardware company that makes streaming players. Many investors have overlooked that Roku is a platform company that owns the dominant Operating System for streaming entertainment - not just for their hardware but across 12+ TV manufacturers currently. Why does this matter? With the explosive growth of streaming video on demand (SVOD) and the ramp-up of linear TV advertising revenue shifting to streaming, no company is better positioned to capture this massive market opportunity than Roku. Roku is capturing the opportunity in several ways, including advertising revenue share across the apps on their platform, share of new pay subscriptions (excluding Netflix, but including Hulu, Sling and Disney+) and the fast growing free Roku Channel. I personally believe Roku has the potential to exceed the size and dominance of Netflix.
Twilio
NYSE: TWLO
Powering customer communications with developer love
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $167.22
Twilio has grown from a text message API to a customer communications platform powerhouse. Their track record of expanding into adjacent markets and staying true to their mission of empowering developers has delivered amazing growth for investors over the years.
Airbnb
NASDAQ: ABNB
The new verb for travel
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $155.09
Airbnb has grown mostly off of word of mouth, a testament to the strength of its brand. Airbnb has become a verb for a new way to travel. And, due to COVID pandemic repercussions, such as work from anywhere, ABNB has grown its TAM to include short term rentals
Read Airbnb deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
PagerDuty
NYSE: PD
Crossing the chasm into digital operations
Bought on 2/25/2022 at $32.90
The investment story of PagerDuty (NYSE: PD) is one of accelerating digital transformation, a company that grown up within the software based DevOps movement, and a stock that offers big potential investor gain if the company can cross the chasm from its current niche market into a more mainstream digital operations market.
Read PagerDuty deep dive from the Wealthy Owl
BigCommerce
NASDAQ: BIGC
The open ecommerce platform prioritizing growth
Bought on 03/01/2022 at $21.89
BigCommerce serves mid market and enterprise size customers with their open software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platform. They have strong product/market fit with their customizable and open solution that integrates with existing business systems. BigCommerce provides ease of use and completeness like Shopify does, but is more suited for the advanced requirements of larger customers. With accelerating revenue growth and near 52 week lows, I've added a small position in BIGC to my growth portfolio. They are losing more money than many investors would like but they are in growth mode.
Elastic
NYSE: ESTC
Beyond the search box
Bought on 03/29/2022 at $89.80
Data is growing at exponential rate. Over the last two years alone, astonishingly 90% of the world’s data has been created (Source: IORG). And, the exponential growth will continue. IDC forecasts that there will be a 10 fold increase in the amount of data on the planet by 2025.
To navigate and make sense of all this data, search becomes more important than ever. But, search is much more than just the search box. In the case of Elastic it's a platform to build solutions on and Elastic offers the best for developers and IT to build upon:
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Walmart uses Elastic to prevent gift card fraud
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Tinder uses Elastic to create love connections
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Uber uses Elastic to match drivers and passengers in real time, and power surge pricing
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Adobe uses Elastic to power search in its products
In recent years, Elastic expanded their stack to add observability and security on a single, unified experience and pricing model. There is upside ahead with Elastic's move to the cloud, cross-sell and upsell green space, and solution optionality.